1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle display apparatus that allows remote operation of an image display device by operating a transparent display input device near the operator, wherein the image display device is mounted at a distance from an operator of a vehicle, such that the operator cannot manipulate the image display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many occasions, vehicles are equipped with a vehicle display apparatus with an image display device provided with functions of displaying maps of geographical regions and navigating a target geographical region. Operational switches of a touch panel are displayed on a display screen of the image display device, and an operator usually manipulates the image display device by touching the operational switches.
However, if the operational switches are displayed on the same display portion of the image display device that represents geographical maps, the image display device needs to be installed within the reach of the hand of a driver or operator. Thus, the image display device is typically installed somewhere close to the driver or operator. For this reason, when the driver views the screen displaying important information such as geographical information, the driver usually has to refocus from a remote frontal site for driving to the screen of the image display device. As a result, the driver often feels inconvenient to see the display screen.
In order to solve the above inconvenience problem, a transparent display input device is installed on the surface of the instrument panel to allow the display of the transparent display to be operated as a touch panel, and the image display device is installed deep inside the instrument panel to improve visibility even from a remote place by seeing a displayed image through the transparent display input device. For instance, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-126354 (JP-A-2004-126354) describes such a vehicle display apparatus.
However, in the above configuration described in the JP-A-2004-126354, because the image display device and the transparent display input device are integrated together and equipped within the instrument panel, the transparent display input device on the surface of the instrument panel may be away from an operator to further improve visibility of the image display device. As a result, manipulability/operability of the transparent display input device may be also degraded. Furthermore, due to the integral structure attached to the instrument panel, a region between the image display device and the transparent display input device may not be used as an available space.